Cepheus and Cassiopeia
by Td03
Summary: He had faith in his sister, he loved her. It's not like she was going to hurt him. But why is she smiling and offering the cat's cradle when Triton is lying down on a red pool? Crawling closer to her brother Mana took his hands away from Triton, and smiled at him. Both of their fingertips are red, and she liked the way they looked. Shu thought death is messy, but this is beautiful.
1. A Tale of Three

**Cepheus and Cassiopeia**

**Td03**

**Originally** 'Take it, Shu'. **I changed it because the current title literally means King and Queen in Astrology.**

**I read almost every Shu Ouma GC fics in 3 days by the way, and 98% of them are all either a continuation or alternate one shots or thoughts on a particular event. I recently read The tale of Adam (**btw, you all really need to read that one. It's so cool, it's Adam instead of Eve, fucking shit is awesome!**) and I agree with the author that this fandom needs more new base and not just of the three I mentioned.**

**I watched the Eps about Shu's past and in my mind, I don't think kids really understand what genes meant by. And if Shu love his sister, that means he would never doubt her right (**_In my mind, if you love someone, you don't question 'is she cheating on me?' or 'does she even remember my birthday?' or 'Did she-did she killed her?'. You love them, you trust them, not doubt them. So think carefully before you declare you love her or him because you don't just throw your love to random person or a singer or idol or- wait, wait, wait, I'm rambling- Fuck._**)? So I don't like the way Shu suddenly calling her Bakemono just because there's blood on her lips and she said some weird things, so this is my twist!**

* * *

**Chapter 1: A Tale of Three**

"Take this, Shu. Let's use our genes to make a new world, Shu. A better one, for you and me."

In another world, where Shu for the first time, felt doubt in his beloved sister. That doubt let fear creped inside his mind and out of fear he focused on his sister's aura rather than herself.

Feeling that eerie, scary feeling surrounding her.

Narrowing his vision on that weird red liquid smeared on her lips.

Taking a quick glance at the same red liquid flowing from his best friend Triton, he called out in fear of whoever was the one who did this to him.

"M-Monster! Go away!" and unfortunately, that monster was his sister.

But in _this_ world, where Shu _never _felt doubt in his beloved sister, and he still trusted her with all his heart, did not lash out. She's his sister, she loved him, she wouldn't hurt him.

"Take it, Shu." Mana repeated, still sitting there, smiling. Her lips were red of something he knew that wasn't lipstick like what Haruka used. And it smeared a little across her cheek, like she painted a red brush on herself without looking at the mirror.

She was in self-tranquility and was still beautiful in his eyes as always, and she still offered that purple string twined in double helix, presenting the cat's cradle.

He didn't grasp the meaning of what she said by 'genes'. But he get that she meant by 'a new world'. They're going to make a better world? Well, he didn't get how they can do it, they're just kids. He didn't have superpowers or anything like that, but by taking this they'd make a cooler world?

Shu smiled at her. And Mana, heart lifted by happiness, smiled widely, destroying whatever eerie, sinister feeling that was crawling inside Shu to fear his not so sister anymore.

"_Cough_.. _cough_…" Blinking once, Shu was surprised when Triton coughed. Not the usual cough out of cold, but out of rasp, and it was more of a choke. He had forgotten about him being injured, considering his sister that was perfectly find, despite the weird things she just said.

"Mana-oneechan! Triton.. what happened to him?" Shu ignored his sister for a bit and knelt down, giving his hands to Triton to pull him up and see why these red water is coming out of him.

Seeing him ignored her just as he was about to take the crown, Mana grew angry at Triton interrupting her proposal. She crawled closer to her brother and took his hands away from Triton, and smiled at Shu.

"It's alright. Let's do something fun together, Shu." Her voice was soft as always, but the childishness in her tone was different than the usual somehow in his ears.

"Mana-onee-" he cut himself off when he saw something strange with her, or rather, on her. It was something purple and shiny and hard and it grew on the tips of her hair before it broke suddenly. He swore he wasn't imagining it. It freaked him out a little, he looked up but she looked just fine to him.

She was tilting her head rather cutely, but he noticed that same weird purple crystal on her neck and cheek, just below her ear. They didn't shatter, they stayed. The were real and he never saw anything like that. That was definitely not a jewel or a necklace.

"Sis.. what's that- I mean.. Is.. Is something wrong? Are you okay?"

She had been leaning to him, by now she was practically on his face, or at least from his perspective. Her face morphed from happiness to confusion, "Wrong? Nothing's wrong, Shu. I'm fine."

She leaned even closer, and this reminded him of her kissing him not so long ago. He had been in denial about whatever that kiss meant, even so young he knew that siblings wasn't supposed to kiss quite like that. And that marriage thing they talked..

He pushed her shoulder, he didn't mean it to be hard but it seemed to get her a bit too far from his position. She didn't lean or crawl to him again, she stayed still.

"No, you're not fine, Sis. Something's wrong with you!" Something is definitely wrong with her. She was acting so calm and Triton is injured right beside them!

"Shu…" she blinked slowly. She reminded him of a confused owl, "I'm sorry.." He looked up in shock when he heard that. Why was she apologizing? Her face was blank and then she started to cry. Her face was all sorts of horror and with that red water on her lips she looked… scary. "Shu… I'm sorry.. I'm so sorry.."

She trembled and hugged herself as she cried. Shu wanted to comfort her, he was close, he could grasp her hand but he didn't even know what she's sorry for. It's not like Triton's hurt because of her.

Then he saw the crystals again, they weren't there, they just grew out of air from her hands, as if they were alive. And the crystals below her right ear grew too, creeping up her face.

Then she screamed.

Light glowed from her chest and Shu was instantly blind, for a moment at least. The light was too much, they oozed of off her body and exploded. There was some sort of shockwave and Shu felt the solid concrete floor hitting the back of his face, and after a few seconds he opened his reddish chocolate eyes, spots of black and shiny grays blurred his vision. He moved his arms up to try to get her own, trying to fins where she was sitting, taking her safety as his priority before his own.

After a while, he realized they were on fire. Everything was on fire. The Christmas tree, the church, and he could see fire going on outside the church from the suddenly broken windows and glasses.

"Mana-oneechan! Mana-" he spotted her. His vision cleared and she looked terrible. Her light pink hair was a bit darker, more of hot pink and the crystals had covered her hands and the tips of her long hair.

She looked horrible. She looked scary. She was downright terrifying compared to his usual image of her but it was clear she was sad from the tears flowing down from her red, bright crimson eyes.

"Shu… help me.. Help me…" she begged. He didn't know what to do. What should he do to her now? He did what she would always do when he was the one who cried. He scooted closer and hugged her.

"I-It's okay.." he almost gave a gasp when he felt the crystals spreading beneath his arms from her hands. She was kneeling down and he hugged her frame like a cocoon, her face buried in his chest. The crystals had grown on her back from his line of sight and he closed his eyes. "I'll help you, Sis." _even if I don't know what she wanted me to help with_. He felt the crystals grow again, almost as if they're slimy jellies sucking up on his own skin if they weren't so hard and solid, but he ignored them in favor of listening his big sister sobbing out of something he doesn't even know.

"Shu, I'm scared." Her voice was so soft and melodious and calm and _dead_ Shu barely heard it from the crashes of small rubbles and the fire but he did.

He didn't know what to say. He didn't know what she's scared of. But he felt the fear too. So he just said whatever his mouth going to say, "I'm scared too, Sis."

That white light exploded again. He knew it a split second early and he braced for whatever will happen.

He shut his eyes. He heard Mana screamed under him and he wanted too. He felt that expected pain in every fiber of his being. He felt that crystal spreading on him, _in_ him. He felt something soft, something hard, something in huge quantity flowing inside of him and he was frozen from the inside. He felt pain and he couldn't move. The fire was dancing in front of him and he didn't move. Instead he held on his sister for life.

As if an invisible force existed, he felt himself being pulled from her, and she herself too. They latched onto each other's wrists, holding each other desperately. He cried when he looked into her bright crimson eyes, unaware of his own eyes briefly flickered as a pair of dark blood red orbs.

She looked so sad but so full of love as if her whole body wasn't covered in shiny purple stones or that the crystals on the tips of her hair aren't pulverized little by little, and even the strands of her hair was gone.

"I love you, Shu." So that's why he cried.

He didn't know what she meant.

He didn't know why she brought up that marriage thing.

He didn't know why she kissed him on the lips in a way he knew no siblings do.

He didn't know why she made him promise to marry her.

He didn't know why this disaster suddenly happened on his way to meet Triton in the church.

But he knew that he loved his sister.

Her sad and loving face were being covered by crystals, and before her right eyes were taken away too, he didn't do his best to form a smile on his lips, they just stretched a little on their own, freeing his tongue to move and let his throat release his voice, "I love you too, Sis."

And she shattered.

Shu wondered his knowledge about it. As far as he knew, death was messy and horrible. They don't do their jobs cleanly. They leave blood splattered like him leaving crumbs of bread, they leave pieces of your body somewhere while you feel like being split in two, they make you coughing endlessly as you desperately try to get back up on the surfaces of the water. At least that's what Dad said during one of their camping horror story time, before Mom whacked him on the head.

This? This wasn't messy. This was beautiful.

He stared blankly as her lower body shattered, releasing another shockwave and that white light, blowing him away. But he saw it. He saw her smile in the midst of the light. He saw those purple crystals pieces diminished themselves into little particles of pink bubbles on the air, like a swarm of night lights. And the blinding white background makes it look like Mana died on the moon.

His body stopped rolling away, and he was thinly aware of the fact that the church were also shattering, but in big chunks and not from crystals, but of lost of strength and foundation. He questioned his luck as none of the rocks had fallen on him, just around him.

What a disaster's miracle.

Soon, the cogency were gone, leaving bricks in vicinity. He was half aware that the garden were all on fire, and the clock tower, and the buildings and houses and everything in shambles.

He needed to do something first.

This time, he didn't question his luck as he quickly spotted Triton, still lying down on a red pool, thankfully weren't covered in the rough fragments of purple rocks.

His feet felt heavy. His movements were slow. He felt the crystals covering enveloping his feet weaken, and a couple of steps later he felt them cracked. He couldn't feel his feet anymore. Gravity seized and Shu fell down beside Triton, unable to move, the latter was still awake, who's eyes were staring at him, full of questions.

"Shu.." Triton didn't know where to begin. Of all things, why did this whole thing happened?

"For you…" Shu dragged his crystalized arm and placed something on his best friends immobile hand.

"Shu!"

"It's-" Shu's eyes felt heavy now. He can't afford to even blink without letting them stay closed for a second, ".. from both of us.. Take it. Tri.. ton." Triton clenched it, not willing away the tears flowing from him. He had lost Mana and now he'll lose Shu too. Shu was never his best friend, he was his little brother in all but blood. He felt the shape of the thing Shu gave him in his fist. A cross. That silver, simple, precious little cross with the silver little chains.

It was Mana's little trinket that had once served as a necklace.

"Shu! No, no, no, no, you're not dying! I-" Triton gasped when Shu's right arm reduced into mere elbow.

"You're not weak, Triton." Shu stated firmly, surprising Triton as he was pretty sure the process was painful. He wanted to cry, but caught himself when he registered what Shu just said.

"But- But if I hadn't been so weak I wouldn't have- Mana- she-"

"We're best friends, Triton.. I don't know what happened, but you're strong and you're kind.. don't lose it."

"K-kind?" If anything, it was his kindness that had led to this mess.

Shu became aware of what his best friend is thinking, "It's not because you're kind.. or weak.. you didn't know any better..." or at least, that's what Shu thought that had happened. All he know is, Mana probably was the one who hurt Triton, "You know we love you, right?"

"Shu!"

"Don't die."

The older boy's breath hitched, and he clutched his hand, almost breaking the little trinket. This was inevitable, "Thank you, Shu." His hand felt weak again. He had accepted reality. "I'm going to get stronger," I will not be weak. Not anymore. I'll be strong so no one precious to me will have the same fate like you two, "For you and.. and Mana." He had accepted his fate, if it was ever his destiny, to be with Mana. He had come to love 'Eve', as he was raised to.

"Promise?" The sound were muffled as Shu's right hand broke little by little, but Triton heard it. Shu grinned, feeling that familiar little hard pieces crawling on his skin. They were on his face now, just below his eyes, closing down on his nose. He was able to see them so close. They looked so different now. They were beautiful clear pink like his sister's hair and eyes use to look, not that cancerous purple he saw before as the first time.

"I promise… little brother." With that final thought, Shu gladly let the beautiful crystals consume him. And he felt his fingers on his other hand, then his arms, then his head shatter, sparkles on the air before dissipating into nothing.

Triton choked as he finally let his tears go. This was all his fault. If he hadn't called Shu to come by the church, Shu wouldn't have died. Shu doesn't deserve to die so early. Mana... her insanity was his fault too. He confronted her about the crystal, about the virus, leading her frustration and anger morphed into unstability. If he hadn't pressured her about them.. maybe she wouldn't have planned to give him the gun, maybe she wouldn't have rushed to choose her 'Adam'.

Maybe she'd stay as the Mana he had come to love.

His moment of weakness was halted when he noticed the wind pace quickened. The sky darkened by dark gray clouds, forming rapidly into one big circular air mass, with the eye right on top of him.

He couldn't believe his eyes.

Lightning followed with thunderous crash struck him, or rather, the ground in front of him. Right at the spot where Shu had just perished. The sudden collision blown Triton away and slammed onto a quarter of the church's wall that had managed to stand. Triton witnessed thousands of shards, those horrible crystals flying to that spot of the debris, slamming into each other, merging, morphing, creating something.

It was round, a bit of an oval. It was big, about twice the size of him. It wasn't a cancerous purple, it was dark purple. It had red haze seeping out of some of the cracks before more crystals plunged and hardened to cover the holes.

With a deja vu, Triton became the front row spectator of the birth of 'Adam'. The dark floating cocoon glowed briefly, more similar to a flicker of a light being turned on and off. Before it cracked from the top to bottom.

It didn't spew out more shards like he expected, nor any blinding white light like when Mana cracked. Instead, dark, eerie, purple thick liquid flowed down from the floating cocoon in a pace as slow as honey dripping from spoon. Soon, the liquid hardened and shattered, and the cocoon followed. It crumbled everywhere into purple dust, and he saw Shu, exactly the same as before, fell down in the heap of dirt before they vanished.

The little silver cross descended, lay forgotten as Triton hurriedly made his way to his previously 'deceased' little brother.

* * *

Haruka never felt so pitiful.

Kurosu died.. he died. Just like that.

It had been a normal day. She expected him to be in his office. She expected him to be buried under his research papers. She expected him to smile and ask for a spicy hamburger or some snack and then get back to his study.

She didn't expect to find him bleeding from a gun shot through his skull and dead.

And then the Apocalypse happened.

It had been a normal day. She planned to spend this as their first Christmas as a family. Mana was waiting for Shu and Triton in the church. She as always went to get her husband and drag him away from his office. She was going to get Shu and Triton too if they're still playing on the bridge.

She didn't expect to find the church reduced to nothing but blocks of rocks.

Her husband was dead from a gun shot. Not from those crystals she had admired when she saw it on her friend's ear, when she mistook it as an earring, at least until it _grew_. Kurosu may not be infected by whatever disease that caused this, but she just _knew_ that his death must be related to it. She remembered something purple he mentioned in his rare, seldom rambling about his research.

Her children are missing right after her husband's death. On Christmas. On the day Mana and Shu finally accepted her fully as a parent. On the day Mana and Shu finally called her 'Okaa-san' this morning when they and Triton made breakfast for her. It was so simple. Just bacon and eggs and a couple glass of milk from the milk carton she just bought yesterday. Triton mentioned they made them based from what United States use to have for breakfast, since Shu said their usual breakfast are boring and dumb and they should make something different and special for Christmas.

They were all so happy...

She denied the fear of admitting that they were all probably already dead, as she had no will destroy what little hope she had.

She supposed she was lucky. She knew other people had it worst. But she couldn't help but be bitter at the fact that she was _alive_.

She doesn't want to live. She clutched her chest, her heart, wishing she could extract it but she feared dying even when she had nothing. Today was Christmas.. and she lost everything. Not her house, not her friends, but her _family_. This was supposed to be the first time they have Christmas as a family. Their first... not their last.

She broke down and gripped the cup of the ice cream she just bought after seeing Kurosu's dead body, planning to tell her children about his passing with an ice cream for them to share. It will never be shared. Instead it fell down in slow motion, droplets of sweet liquid melting down from the ice to the bloodied ground she had stained with her husband's blood she had touched.

It was a strawberry ice cream. Mana's and Shu's and now Triton's favorite kind of beverage. And now stained by blood, it looked like that cancerous purple she had encountered _everywhere_ she looked when she went back here.

They were officially a family... why?

"Haruka!" The young woman who bore the name mentioned gasped. Not at the unexpected arrival of the voice in her ears, but at her brain's conformation of the voice's owner. "Triton!" She looked up in shock as the unmistakable sluggish form of the blond child she and Kurosu took in came into her view. A new wave crashed, this time from happiness and relief and gratefulness and bitterness at the thought she had believed her children were gone.

She quickly stood up and ran to Triton, smiling happily as she saw Shu's form dragged by Triton. Triton gently laid Shu down to Haruka's lap, who gasped at her son's state.

His body was still intact, but his chest, right at the section where his heart resides, were crystalized. They weren't covered in crystal, instead, it looks as if Shu's heart capacity had been born as crystals. She placed her palm on his crystal-chest, and it pulsed.

"Triton-" She looked up and looked behind and looked at her sides and looked everywhere.

Triton was gone. He had just left.

Haruka would have yelled her soon-to-be adopted son's name if Shu hadn't drew a quick breath.

Shu rarely had nightmares. In fact, she couldn't even recall the last time he had ever come to Mana to sleep together from nightmares. Despite his energy to run around and about, he made a hobby of himself to take a nap every now and then. His face just looked so peaceful, no stretches of worry and no wrinkles of uneasiness. There was no smile, but his lips were parted a little and he looked like a newborn baby. He had even claimed he thinks he's in a new world in his sleep, and he'd ramble about them, sometimes they were an abbreviation of the prehistorical era or a future modern capital.

Now, she noticed him breathing rather hard, quick and shallow and his chest kept glowing and moving upwards and down as he take every little bit of air. His crystal-chest doesn't seem constricting, they had rather flexible limbs despite the hard look, they moved as if they weren't solid mass at all. Shu's mouth gasp every so often and he was sweaty. She placed her palm on his forehead and was really surprised that his temperature weren't high, but deathly cold. She didn't notice it, she blamed the strawberry ice cream.

She was worried. Of course she was worried, she had every right to be. What do you do if your two sons found you, one of them left you and the other had the middle of their chest replaced with stones?

"I suppose you are in need of assistance?" Said a smooth voice from in front of her.

"You're..."

"I am Yuu, Envoy of Daath. And who you are holding is Adam." Haruka was surprised at what he referred Shu as, and her confusion must have been visible for Yuu to elaborate, "You are aware of the fact that Eve, or as you call her, _Mana_, was the one who discovered the virus from the meteorite 5 years ago?"

"That- You mean the symbiotic algorithm of that _rock_ was a virus?"

The blond boy 'tsk'ed in amusement, "That's not just a rock. That's the one that housed the mother of the Apocalypse Virus, and your daughter was the first infected with it," however, Yuu had lost her attention half way through his explanation as Shu gave another cry of pain. Haruka panicked when her palm met vibrations along the crystallized chest. "What- What is happening to him?"She didn't know why she was asking a stranger for an answer but he seemed to know what he's saying.

Yuu smirked,"It's the screams. The terror. The chaos. They disturbed his birth, and let the egg crack before they were given any warmth."

"I don't understand."

"You will understand. You have to, or else your son will stay this way. Now, we wouldn't want that would we?"

"Who are you?" she asked breathlessly, she was getting desperate on anything to stop Shu from being rigid, tense, vibrating with every pained gasps.

"I told you, I am Yuu, I am the Envoy of Daath. What Daath wants is what I want, Daath's purpose is my purpose. And I propose to you, Ouma Haruka, to help me in completing my purpose of life, Daath's reason in existence. Daath will stabilize your son. By the time we discover the perfect formula, you may very well be reunited with your daughter."

Yuu raised his rather thick yellow eyebrow, "All I need is your assistance and loyalty. I will not force you to do anything unpleasant and you can keep your son as we need him to grow. We have all the time in the world."

Haruka doesn't understand why, but she get that whoever or whatever Daath is they were kind enough to let her keep Shu and help him up and healthy. They could be lying, but the thought barely held any string in her mind, as she needed to cure her son, in any means possible.. and to see Mana, "I will. Just cure Shu."

At this, his smirk somehow seemed wider and more eager to spill whatever he was thinking, "Adam is already cured, all we need is to help him find his Eve."

* * *

**Author's Note:**

By the way, Shu is 5, Gai is 6 and Mana's 7. When I was 5 I didn't understand what blood is other than it usually came out of my fingers if I scratched too hard. Yes, I was dumb back then so lay off. I was naïve- so innocent you wouldn't believe how I turned out like the way I am now.

**[****4588]**


	2. On Probation

**Cepheus and Cassiopeia**

Well, of course the last chapter somewhat resembles _Guilty Melody_. That and _The tale of Adam_ are the only GC fictions I read that starts at the beginning and was _serious_. Others are smut -_- I was inspired by _Guilty Melody_\- I should have stated this at the beginning, sorry. Though, both of them use the setting of Shu's life with Yuu and Daath. I'm trying to take a different approach, and am trying to lean more on how Japan will change into what it is now. You know, this fiction was originally a prequel AU for my crossover GC/CG(Code Geass). Mostly I'm trying to lead it towards that so that my story wouldn't be chalked up as a third rate, since _TtoA_ and _GM_ are too awesome already.

Speaking of which, the author for the former story I mentioned, **Kira31** had reviewed this and OH MY GOD! Kira loves this! AHHHHHHHHHHH! I got THREE of my Top 5 Fave GC Authors favoring my fiction. MY story! (Some of) YOU DON'T KNOW HOW HAPPY I AM RIGHT NOW!

Anyway, Kira pointed out a very important issue here, me leaving in between A/N destroys the readers' imagination as it reminds them that this is a story. I fixed that problem immediately.

Thank you intended for reviewers and Thanks intended for readers. Super gratitude to a reviewer who gives me ideas for the next or later chapters! Call me bias but even if I know you're reading this through the Traffic Stats, doesn't mean I don't love the reviews~

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**_That _****was what I intended to say about a few months ago. I never meant to quit this, especially after so many people telling me to freaking update this. I get your reviews from my gmail and all I can do was write and write for the next installment because it has been MONTHS since the last time my Dad buys a Wi-Fi that allows :(**

**For a little trivia for this fiction, Haruka is 25, while Kurosu was 30 or so.**

**This was an AU prequel of my "**_War Child (V.C.)_**", so some names will coincide with the characters of CG, because sometimes I'm bringing the UN officials in the story. It will be very different than other GC fictions. At least I hope I'm the first to try this approach. If you're confused of the parties, try watching Code Geass. This isn't a crossover, I'm just borrowing the background. And it will still focus more on Shu instead of the many militaristic OC.**

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**Chapter 2: On Probation**

**_December 24 (8:00 PM)_**

**_An unknown location_**

"How exactly do you mean by 'stabilizing' him?" Haruka asked full of worry. Peering through the transparent glass case she could see her son, still sick, still crystallized and laid on a plain, white bed.

Yuu had taken her, lifting Shu as if their age difference is wider, to an aircraft. A very big one. And he led her to an infirmary. Now the room is bursting with doctors _monitoring_ Shu. After whatever operation went on, the doctors exited the room and guaranteed that _Adam_ was fine.

She never thought that silence could be so devastating. His body was covered with bandages, and a large portion of them was snaked with wires hooked on strange machines. The whole room was eerie, and the lighting made the dripping liquid and IV in the tubes ominous.

She could do nothing but stand straight, trying to not slouch, waiting for the _damned time_ to hurry up and heal her son. Yuu won't even allow her to enter the room he was admitted to. Her son was in there _all alone_, definitely not what Kurosu wished for him to be, and all she could do was to stand outside the glass enclosure giving prays to him. How would talking silly things help him when this stupid glass is shielding him from hearing her? How would prays for his health heal him when he doesn't even know she was here for him? _Outside? _Doing nothing but watching him suffer. Her sheer uselessness!

Yuu turned, still using that arrogant expression, "Exactly as I said it. I told you, his birth was interrupted, which resulted as him granted with a body that could not handle the pressure of the virus' inbreeding."

She balked. "Inbreeding?"

"Make no mistake, your son will be our King and is in the process of adapting. Darwinism theory applies in every part of his body, morphologically and physiologically, both _inside_ and outside."

"… I understand," Haruka mumbled quietly in affirmation. Yuu had explained to her on the way about Shu being… Adam. And while she doesn't exactly like the idea of Shu… destroying… human kind and repopulate the new Utopia with his _sister,_ this was the only way to save his life from the pain. Hearing him gasping in agony through the whole journey made up her mind to help him in any way she can. She already gave her word and she's not one to break her promises.

For now, it seems her son really is fine. All she can do is to prepare herself for what the future might offer.

"Yuu-san?"

"Yes?"

"Do you know anything that might happen to Japan?" Having a virus outbreak on such a large scale, Japan would be lucky if it wasn't obliterated.

A flicker of amusement passed his face. "If you are worried about where you will stay, I can provide you an apartment in the States."

"The States? No." A thousand times no. She had not even prepared a funeral for Kurosu. And Triton is still missing. And her dead friends… "I can still stay in Japan, can't I? The virus outbreak is over. There's no more medium." It felt very weird and inhuman to call her daughter as a medium. But as a scientist, she had to be objective on the problem.

A shrug. "You can, but I can guarantee that Japan will be quarantined."

"I expected as much."

"There will be riots."

Riots? Haruka drew a sharp breath, giving him a worried look. There had been no more riots or full scale war ever since the end of World War III in 2012. It was a brief war that lasted only for 10 years, but with the modern technology development after the 90s Industrial Revolutionary, large areas in several continents had been demolished by nuclear bombs.

The war ended when the Pope makes a Christmas Eve appeal for peace, reminding the world what Pope Pius XII did to end the Second World War in 1939 on the same date. After that, the United Nations was created and every nation that wanted peace back joined it, significantly reducing the violence and ultimately ending anymore fracas. Upsurge of war died, and politics took on a brighter term.

Haruka was born right after the end of WW III, so she had never experienced any civil war. Anything close to violence in her daily life was her seldom skirmishes with bad men. Perverts were stupid people. A man with no hope, though, was dangerous.

She turned her view back to Shu.

Yuu stroked his chin contemplatively. "Would you agree to stay here in the meantime? Perhaps familiarize yourself in the Lyra? We will be safe here, I assure you, thanks to the Illuminator Injector." Lyra is the name for the aircraft of Daath's Headquarters. The Illuminator Injector is a remarkable invention founded by Jun Kaji, a brilliant technician in Osaka who is actually a member of the organization of Daath. The "Illin" is a technology that manipulates the atoms of an item, in this case, an aircraft, to become transparent. It was not a foolproof tool to hide and disappear, as direct light might make the invisible object shimmer and it does not make the object intangible.

She frowned, not quite following him. "Are you sure it's alright for me to take a look? I am an outsider."

He smirked in mirthfully. "Oh, don't worry. They know about you already. Are you still uncomfortable?"

"What? No!" she quickly denied, not wanting to upset her only chance to save Shu. "I just never thought to move out all of the sudden. Would it be alright… if I take a few things from my house? It won't take long."

Yuu just shrugged again. "I'm fine with that. We can send you back down and pick you up. Though, it won't be a pretty sight."

She knows. She expected as much already.

* * *

**_8:04 PM_**

**_Somewhere in Japan_**

He ran and ran and ran. He never once looked back. It was his destiny to run away, to run away from that facility, and to run away from Mana. But perhaps destiny can change. He was always one to believe that his choices will make his destiny, yet in the end, he ended up being found by none other than Eve.

Eve. For a long time, he and his fellow brothers had resented this _Eve_ Daath keep mentioning them. They didn't like that this _Eve _they knew nothing about is apparently, _might_ be their destiny. They didn't like that this nonexistent _Eve_ is the sole reason they were held captive, used as an experiment subject for the Apocalypse Virus.

He had forgotten of his past. All he could remember was his time in that facility, and his time with Mana and Shu and Haruka and Kurosu. He was definitely lost. For as far as he can see, everything was either infected people shivering on the roads or the burning buildings. Half the houses didn't have roofs. The other half was burning, demolished into slabs of concrete. No one bothered to put the fire out. Then again, it was pointless as it wasn't like there would be anyone who would repair them. Poles were falling like hapless meat and electric currents were buzzing dangerously around the cables. Cars were smoking, several of them thrown upwards from the parking lot to the supermarket. Everything was essentially obsolete.

He clutched the rosary in his palm. He wished Shu was with him! He wished for his brother in all but blood would hold his hand and guide him and help him jump and ran and flew away from this mess. Why was he running again? Oh, yes, he had no more purpose. Mana was gone. Shu was…

Shu was Adam now.

* * *

**_11:38 PM_**

**_U.N. Central Command_**

"General Hoff, come in, General Hoff. "The radio which had been sitting quietly up until that point, crackled.

"This is General Jon Hoff, what's the situation?"

"Satellites recorded an implosion in Japan. The explosion radius stretched from Yokohama to Kashiwa. It seems that the explosion originated from Tokyo, sir."

Jon Hoff, High General of the United Nations' brow arched upwards. An implosion that destroyed the capital city of Japan, wide enough to narrowly miss Mount Fuji no less. "Any clue as who planted the bomb?"

"That's the problem, sir. We don't think it's a regular bomb or even a nuclear bomb, sir."

"Alright. What have we got here?"

"The heat from the blast was in excess of 2,700 degrees Celcius. Anyone within sixty thousand miles were crystallized, sir."

"Compile the database and send the footage." He shut down the comm. link, his boots- clean of the mud that often caked the footwear of military officers- walked down the hall and entering the command deck. As a general, he holds the most senior appointments. A sudden attack- a very devastating attack happening in the middle of peace times after 17 years of peace- was emergent enough to warrant a conference.

It took at least 10 minutes for all the members of the Honored Ministers of the United Nations to arrive, or, failing that, open up a comm. link to attend the meeting without being present in the room.

In the United Nations High Council, there was him, the High General and Chief of General Staff that has the responsibilities of maintaining the Army prowess. Seated around the oval conference table were key figures of the united federation of nations. Presidents, Kings, Prime Ministers of the countries that work together with the U.N., Marshalls of the Land, Navy and Air Armada, the Chiefs of Defense, Administration and Intelligence gathered to discuss the latest development.

Jon coughed a little to gather a modicum of their attention. "Greetings, Honored Ministers of the United Nations." Always begin with flattery. It was a rather bothersome protocol in his opinion. "Without further ado, I will begin to address the matter at hand. Less than two hours ago, an unknown cause has set up an explosion in the midst of Japan. If the Prime Minister may shed us some light?"

"As of this moment, my nation is suffering a heavy lost." Genbu Kururugi, Prime Minister of Japan began. "I will not be shifting blames between us, because this explosion is not a conspiracy. The Office of Secret Intelligence has verified that this is has an epidemic cause." He pulled out several screens that showed complicated data and calculations. "A virus that we have encountered several hundred years ago."

Nearly all present recognized the ethereal purple glow of the image of the rock. "The Apocalypse Virus?" Tiberius Simak, the Lord Air Marshall of the U.N. named their thoughts. "The last time it happened was in 1953 when the meteorite fell upon Australia."

Kururugi nodded. "The same rock had fallen in Japan, specifically in the island of Oshima 5 years ago. However, it appears that this rock did not react other than glowing brightly when the explosion came. It is still locked, safe within Sephirah Genomics' deepest underground laboratory."

"Are there any survivors this time?" The Chief of Administration, Lewis Wilde, joined in the conversation. The last three Apocalypses had vaporized the people within the radius and left none alive, barring a select few, the ones that were lucky enough to hold off. Unfortunately, most of them had entered Stage IV, where the person's superior and interior body parts have crystalline substances that continue to spread.

"Around three millions of life has crystallized and disintegrated. Surprisingly, more or less 4,800 people managed to hold out and had only entered Stage II. The Japanese branch of Sephirah has started to administer the vaccines, but we are in short supply."

"How long can Japan hold on?"

"Two years at best." Kururugi said crisply.

"How are the delegations at Beijing?" the Vice Chairman brought up, motioning for the Chief of Registration Affairs to inform the present.

"China still insists to be an independent nation. The Empress is still but a puppet, with the High Eunuchs holding the majority of the government power. The loyalists are getting restless and I'm afraid a civil war is looming in China."

"Our relationship with the Chinese Federation is still shaky at best." Chairman Oscar said, speaking after his colleagues had vocalized their opinions. "And they are merely across the sea with Japan. The former Apocalypses had hit the North of Korea, Vladivostok in Russia and Sydney in Australia; all of them are in dire need of healing experts and the vaccine. I'm afraid, given the virus' sporadic effect; we will have to put Japan in a quarantine state."

His command left no room for an argument, much to the Japanese Prime Minister's ire. However, it was a reasonable action. Given the high value of the vaccine developed by Sephirah to cure the crystallizing effect, and that Japan is housing five thousand infected people whose medical needs will not be satisfied without periodically injecting them with the vaccine. And even with the regular inoculations, the vaccine was only able to prevent the disease's progression, instead of killing off the virus altogether.

In the end of the day, December 24th of 2029 was known as Lost Christmas. The day when the death toll was so high, as it was the Eve of Christmas and Yule, the peak of Winter Holiday in the capital city of Tokyo where scores of tourists and Japanese citizens were celebrating.

* * *

**_Invalid time_**

**_An unknown location_**

Being blind was not like looking around a black room. Even if you were locked inside a small room with black walls, black door, black everything, you can still see the outlines of the corner of the rooms because of the dust. You can still see where the room ended and where the ceiling began thanks to the spider's web. You are still sure that you know you can see something, even if that something was nothing but darkness.

But being blind was like trying to see the bottom of the river in the night. It was not like sinking under a trench and trying to swim up because being blind meant you don't know if you're going up to the surface or going deeper and waiting for the water to choke you. Still, being blind mean you're still alive, and you can still imagine the colors.

He can just imagine that the darkness is actually white. He can envision that he was holding a little puppy. He can pretend that there was never a pair of pinkish orbs looking down on him or that he was not holding his chest that was made out of glass.

_Take the crown._

And he woke up; bleary red eyes looking straight at the raspberry tea beside the night table reflecting his slightly tanned face, covered in an oxygen mask that was linked to a tank beside him.

_Where am I? _He asked the million dollar question of all times, trying to get the answer by looking around. His hope to recognize anything was shot down however, as the room he was kept in were stark white, undecipherable other than the oak door and a single glass window on one side.

He took in the sight of his bandaged body. There were little grey buttons that Dad once told him were heart monitors attached to his chest, and his arms had needles with tubes stuck in them, one leading to a bag with a clear liquid and the other red liquid. There were other monitors sticking out from the covers with wires ending at a strange, large machine that and complicated readings on the screen. He wondered if he should pluck them all out, seeing as he felt fine, albeit a little dizzy.

He looked at the other side of the room, ignoring the heavy smell of antiseptic in the air and, surprisingly, it was unmistakably a television.

_"I was as shocked as you all are people. Word just got out that the Prime Minister of Japan, Genbu Kururugi was assassinated by an unknown person, perhaps by one of the many terrorists groups. The killer himself, a man named Itsuka Takamiya, has been caught in the act and executed on spot."_

_"The fate of Japan is hanging in a thin thread. The government is in disarrayed as most of them have been assassinated by terrorists or have died by the recent cancerous epidemic caused by what has been known as the Apocalypse Virus."_

_"Unable to be seen by the naked eye, this virus spreads and multiply itself by a genomic resonance and infected the introns, causing our flesh to harden and creating a purple, crystal-like structures on the body, inflicting structural sclerosis and eventually, disintegrating the body. The late Prime Minister had acquired aid for the vaccines from the United Nations Council, thankfully."_

_"And yet, Mike, because three cities had been hit by the same disease outbreak years ago, Japan have been put in a quarantine state."_

_"Lest they risk the virus spreading outside the country and across the humanity, I agree. What will happen to Japan? We will see."_

_—Live discussion, by Maya Hansen and Mike Tyson_

* * *

**First episode, when a shimmer appeared in front of the enemy Endlave broke and revealed Ayase's Endlave. I don't know if that "invisibility" was developed in the original series, but I thought it was a definite waste to just let it go. I don't know if it is a system or not, so I made the ability as a projection of a technology made by an OC, whose name I picked from Fukuyama Jun, seiyuu of Lelouch vi Britannia and Yuki Kaji, seiyuu of Shu Ouma.**

**Genbu Kururugi is the late Prime Minister of Japan who was killed by his son, Suzaku in the Code Geass Universe. I couldn't stop laughing when I chose the name. I thought it would be easier to picture the character if the name sounds familiar to other anime you might have watched. Since this story will focus more on the nations' state and Shu's involvement in it, there will be a lot of OCs, so I hate to give an introduction appearance every time I write a new character. I'm pretty sure you'd hate it if I kept mentioning 'blonde hair, or blue eyes, or he was a tall man, etc.'**

**1953 because in December 24th of that year was when two fast express trains crash HEAD-ON killing 103 lives in Czechoslovakia. I always thought that two trains in one track speeding against one another was always a sick fiction someone thought of, but it turns out it happened in real life. I never imagined there was a real life accident like that. Those kinds of scenario usually only happens in movies and the main character ended up saving them in the nick of time, so the dramatics really fooled me.**

**I chose Greenland to cripple Britannia, India instead of the Middle East lands, and Australia because the continent is never of real importance in both Black Rebellions. It was never given airing time in CG, perhaps because it's neutral, or perhaps because it is gone? **

**Yuu has repeatedly mentioned Mana's "accident" as the Fourth Apocalypse so I thought the whole world already knows about the virus. In this fiction, the first, second, and third apocalypse explosions was set off by the meteorite they collected. But the explosions was considered a "failure" by Daath because there was no Eve or Adam. Let's say that when they discovered the first, second, and third meteorite, _no one_ touched it {without using plastics, or rubber gloves or etc.}, so the virus never spreads.**

**However, when the series say "contain" I don't really understood what they meant by contain. Is the virus sporadic and spreads through the air? How do they "contain" it? I'm answering that with my fictional fan-theories.**

* * *

**Thank you so much for the author who wrote the _Dark Crown of the Guilty King_ for mentioning my story so highly. It feels like the world to me, being an amateur high school student. It made me laugh a lot, mostly because I'm a girl, not a guy :D I think your story is great (awesome take on the whole King thing), but I also think it would have been better if it made a better distinction between 'a boy who accepts his destiny' and 'a little boy' because Shu was 5 or 7 years old at that time in the Anime and I had a hard time mentally linking the… mature words with the image of young Shu. And thanks for the wish! It made me finished this chapter!**

**I'm not sure if that was acceptable as a context for a live TV show, I just made it all up with no guidance about interviews and stuff. Was that acceptable? Or was it too much information to be legitimate?**

**Anyone who can find the connection between the names of the High General and the Lord Air Marshall will receive brownies :D [4006]**


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